Happy Michaelmas Day!
Michaelmas Day, celebrated next day on September 29, is a day rich in religious and secular traditions in British culture. It’s also called the Feast of Michael and All Angels, including the angels Gabriel and Raphael.
The Quizzing Glass Blog
Balancing Research and Imaginative Creativity in Historical Fiction
Mark your calendar! Our September Monthly Tea is this Friday, September 22, at 2pm ET (5 pm PT). Whether you write romance, mystery, fantasy, or some other subgenre of historical fiction, knowing when to stop researching and start writing is crucial to getting your novel on the page. In this talk, author and translator…
A Successful Evening
The host must be delighted by the turnout! I won’t be able to forget this when describing a crowded ball or reception! The clothing is particularly interesting. Compare the lady on the right in white (a demure debutante?) and the one on the left with the train (rather less respectable, I think). The description in…
Featured Member for September: Heather Redmond
This month Quizzing Glass chats with Heather Redmond, mystery author QC: What most interests you about the people of the Georgian/Regency era? It was a very dramatic era, with war, industrialization, royal drama, mad poets, scientific advances, and so much more! Those years seem to be an endless well for creatives. QC:Â When did you…
Regency Fashion Victims
In my last post I discussed Beau Brummell’s sophisticated manner of dress, and what a contrast Brummell’s understated style was to the flashier styles worn by some of his contemporaries. While Brummell may have disapproved of their fashion sense, the men and women whose dress he criticized provided excellent fodder for the caricaturists of their…
Beau Brummell and the Evolution of Men’s Fashion
There have always been and always will be dandies – men who follow fashion and take an active interest in how they present themselves to the world. However, the Regency produced one of the most influential and famous dandies of all time, George Bryan “Beau” Brummell.
August in Georgian History
We recently reported that Napoleon was exiled to Saint Helena in August 1815 and that Queen Caroline, the princess whose husband banned her from his coronation, died in August 1821. Here are some other notable events: August 12, 1822, Lord Castlereagh, British Foreign Secretary, who was Foreign Secretary during the defeat of Napoleon, committed suicide….
Featured Member for August: Meredith Bond
QG: When did you first get hooked (and what hooked you) on the Regency era? The first Regency romance I ever read was Friday’s Child by Georgette Heyer. Her dialogue was nothing like anything I’d ever read before. It was funny and just so outlandish I sat and giggled my way through the book. I…
England’s “Injured Queen” – Part 2
In my last post, I described the miserable marriage of the Prince Regent and Caroline of Brunswick. After years of restrictions and neglect, Caroline left England to go abroad, where scandal dogged her footsteps. Following the deaths of her daughter and grandson in 1817, and the imminent succession to the throne of her estranged husband…
England’s “Injured Queen”
August can be an unlucky month for European royalty, and that was especially true during the Regency. Napoleon was exiled to St. Helena in August of 1815. And in August of 1821, Caroline of Brunswick, the Princess of Wales, died a lonely death in London just three weeks after her estranged husband, the former Prince…